Spirit of Ma'at: "The Great Religions" — Vol 3, No 7
The Way of the Heart
by Drunvalo
Although I studied and lived Sufism traditionally for eleven years, I don't truly feel qualified to say that I am a "Sufi." Nonetheless, I will give my impressions and experiences during this time, and the way I feel that this teaching has carried forward in my life and in my own teachings.
For me it began in Boulder, Colorado, in about 1975. I was studying Tibetan Buddhism with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, to understand "chaos" and it's part in creation and life, when I was asked to help run and teach in a Sufi Khankah (like an ashram) that was just being established in Boulder.
The Khankah was focused on the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, the man who brought Sufism to the Western world in the early 1900s. I had been carefully studying his books and works for some time before. It was with Hazrat Inayat Khan's teachings that my Sufi understanding began. His son, Pir Vilayat Khan, still leads this form of Sufism, here in the United States and elsewhere.
My Sufi name, as it slowly emerged, was Akbar Ali Khan. Each part of this name was given to me by three different Sufi teachers, called "Murshids," during separate initiations. Each of these Sufi schools approached Sufism in a slightly different manner.
A quote from the Sufi Message of Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan, Volume IX, illuminates the Sufi purpose: "If anybody asks what Sufism is, what kind of religion is it, the answer is that Sufism is the religion of the heart, the religion in which the thing of primary importance is to seek God in the heart of mankind."
Hazrat Inayat Khan taught that the Sufi Message was an "inner" Sufism — the mystical core found in all religions. He and Indries Shah emphasized that Sufism was not a religion or a sect bound by dogma or a practice using a regular place of worship, but that it was the heart of all who respected the sacred. Hazrat Khan said there were three ways of seeking God in the human heart.
The first way is to recognize the divine in everyone and to be considerate towards every person with whom we come in contact, in our thought, speech, and action.
The next way of practicing this religion is to think of the feelings of someone who is not with one at the moment. One sympathizes with the trouble of someone who is with one at the moment, but it is more praiseworthy to sympathize with one who is far away.
The third way of realizing the Sufi principle is to recognize in one's own feeling the feeling of God, to realize every impulse of love that rises in one's heart as a direction from God, to realize that love is a divine spark in one's heart, to blow that spark until a flame may rise to illuminate the path of one's life.
Hazrat says, "The greatest principle of Sufism is 'Ishq Allah, Ma'bud Allah.'" ("God is love, lover, and beloved.")
Many believe that Sufism was born from Islam about 700 years ago, but there are Sufis who believe that Sufism was birthed from the human heart and would probably best be described simply as the "spirit of Islam."
In its most basic understanding, it is a religion that also believes that there is only One God, and that each major religion that has emerged on earth was begun by the One God. And so, Sufism feels justified to use and take from each religion whatever works to bring mankind closer to God.
In one moment, the Sufi student may practice a breathing method from India's Hinduism, and in the next practice the ancient Chinese movements of Tai Chi. The only criterion is the effect on the human spirit.
The truest aspects of Sufism are extremely subtle. One can't make assumptions from the ego, but must rely on an inner wisdom and an inner sight that is found only in the heart. The wisdom of the heart is sometimes talked about as the "single eye within the heart," and the symbol for Sufism as Hazrat taught it is a "heart with wings." It is considered by many Sufis that the heart holds the key to consciously living life in the presence of God.
Since Sufism and Islam have similarities, it is natural that Sufism uses many techniques to change consciousness derived directly from Islam, such as Zikar. In this form, the ninety-nine names of Allah are chanted for long periods of time to bring the student into direct experience of the characteristics of that particular name or sound. This is usually done in a circle with many other people participating and swaying to the constant chanting for long periods of time until the desired state is achieved.
Often people associate Sufism with "The Dances of Universal Peace," which were created or assembled by a man named Mursid Sam Lewis. He was both a Jewish Rabbi and a Christian priest, but more than any religion, he personally felt he was a Sufi.
Murshid Sam Lewis changed the lives of thousands of people in the 1960s with his dances and his teachings of love and beauty. Still, today, his dances continue around the world as a tribute to his purity of spirit.
Rumi expressed Sufism through his poetry. For Rumi, poetry was the only way to convey something that was beyond the mind. Love can be talked about, but the only way that love can be known is to be lived through direct experience. And poetry has that elusive quality of transcending words and lightly touching upon this secret garden of the human heart.
In the book, Rumi, The Persian, The Sufi, Rumi quietly murmurs and speaks from his heart about his personal experience:
And later he says:
And finally:
Idries Shah, however, approaches the subject of the heart using the stories that eventually became known here in the States as "Sufi Stories." He wrote many books on the subtlety of Sufi thought, whose intent usually surpassed the coarseness of the material world and went directly to the heart of the matter. As examples, here are four short "Sufi" stories from Shah's book, The Way of the Sufi:
I. The Heart
Someone went up to a madman who was weeping in the bitterest possible way.
He said: "Why do you cry?"
The madman answered: "I am crying to attract the pity of His heart."
The other told him: "Your words are nonsense, for He has no physical heart."
The madman answered: "It is you who are wrong, for He is the owner of all the hearts which exist. Through the heart you can make your connection with God."
II. Light
The true lover finds the light only if, like the candle, he is his own fuel, consuming himself.
III. On Your Religion
Throughout the dervish literature you will find us saying repeatedly that we are not concerned with your religion or even with the lack of it. How can this be reconciled with the fact that believers consider themselves the elect?
IV. The Door
Salih of Qazwin taught his disciples: "Whoever knocks at the door continually, it will be opened to him."
Rabia, hearing him one day, said: "How long will you say, "It will be opened."? The door has never been shut."
Sufism is simple. It is the way of the Heart. For this reason it has always existed, and will always exist as long as love and compassion are possibilities of human expression.
For me it began in Boulder, Colorado, in about 1975. I was studying Tibetan Buddhism with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, to understand "chaos" and it's part in creation and life, when I was asked to help run and teach in a Sufi Khankah (like an ashram) that was just being established in Boulder.
The Khankah was focused on the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, the man who brought Sufism to the Western world in the early 1900s. I had been carefully studying his books and works for some time before. It was with Hazrat Inayat Khan's teachings that my Sufi understanding began. His son, Pir Vilayat Khan, still leads this form of Sufism, here in the United States and elsewhere.
My Sufi name, as it slowly emerged, was Akbar Ali Khan. Each part of this name was given to me by three different Sufi teachers, called "Murshids," during separate initiations. Each of these Sufi schools approached Sufism in a slightly different manner.
A quote from the Sufi Message of Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan, Volume IX, illuminates the Sufi purpose: "If anybody asks what Sufism is, what kind of religion is it, the answer is that Sufism is the religion of the heart, the religion in which the thing of primary importance is to seek God in the heart of mankind."
Hazrat Inayat Khan taught that the Sufi Message was an "inner" Sufism — the mystical core found in all religions. He and Indries Shah emphasized that Sufism was not a religion or a sect bound by dogma or a practice using a regular place of worship, but that it was the heart of all who respected the sacred. Hazrat Khan said there were three ways of seeking God in the human heart.
The first way is to recognize the divine in everyone and to be considerate towards every person with whom we come in contact, in our thought, speech, and action.
The next way of practicing this religion is to think of the feelings of someone who is not with one at the moment. One sympathizes with the trouble of someone who is with one at the moment, but it is more praiseworthy to sympathize with one who is far away.
The third way of realizing the Sufi principle is to recognize in one's own feeling the feeling of God, to realize every impulse of love that rises in one's heart as a direction from God, to realize that love is a divine spark in one's heart, to blow that spark until a flame may rise to illuminate the path of one's life.
Hazrat says, "The greatest principle of Sufism is 'Ishq Allah, Ma'bud Allah.'" ("God is love, lover, and beloved.")
Many believe that Sufism was born from Islam about 700 years ago, but there are Sufis who believe that Sufism was birthed from the human heart and would probably best be described simply as the "spirit of Islam."
In its most basic understanding, it is a religion that also believes that there is only One God, and that each major religion that has emerged on earth was begun by the One God. And so, Sufism feels justified to use and take from each religion whatever works to bring mankind closer to God.
In one moment, the Sufi student may practice a breathing method from India's Hinduism, and in the next practice the ancient Chinese movements of Tai Chi. The only criterion is the effect on the human spirit.
The truest aspects of Sufism are extremely subtle. One can't make assumptions from the ego, but must rely on an inner wisdom and an inner sight that is found only in the heart. The wisdom of the heart is sometimes talked about as the "single eye within the heart," and the symbol for Sufism as Hazrat taught it is a "heart with wings." It is considered by many Sufis that the heart holds the key to consciously living life in the presence of God.
Since Sufism and Islam have similarities, it is natural that Sufism uses many techniques to change consciousness derived directly from Islam, such as Zikar. In this form, the ninety-nine names of Allah are chanted for long periods of time to bring the student into direct experience of the characteristics of that particular name or sound. This is usually done in a circle with many other people participating and swaying to the constant chanting for long periods of time until the desired state is achieved.
Often people associate Sufism with "The Dances of Universal Peace," which were created or assembled by a man named Mursid Sam Lewis. He was both a Jewish Rabbi and a Christian priest, but more than any religion, he personally felt he was a Sufi.
Murshid Sam Lewis changed the lives of thousands of people in the 1960s with his dances and his teachings of love and beauty. Still, today, his dances continue around the world as a tribute to his purity of spirit.
Rumi expressed Sufism through his poetry. For Rumi, poetry was the only way to convey something that was beyond the mind. Love can be talked about, but the only way that love can be known is to be lived through direct experience. And poetry has that elusive quality of transcending words and lightly touching upon this secret garden of the human heart.
In the book, Rumi, The Persian, The Sufi, Rumi quietly murmurs and speaks from his heart about his personal experience:
-
Do you know who is alive?
That one who is born in love.
I am not the moon, or the universe, or thunder
Or clouds
I am all love, all love, I am all soul by your
Soul
I am full of love, flaming as a burning tree;
A stranger to everyone except love, like oil and
Water
And later he says:
-
A human being is born once, I was born
Several times.
You are happy and drunk with wine, I am
Joyful and drunk without wine.
And finally:
-
In the rose garden of baga I have plucked many
Flowers.
I am not from water or fire, or from stormy
Winds.
Nor am I painted dust; I have laughed at all.
I am not Shams of Tabriz, I am pure light.
Beware if you see me; don't tell anyone that
You have seen me.
Idries Shah, however, approaches the subject of the heart using the stories that eventually became known here in the States as "Sufi Stories." He wrote many books on the subtlety of Sufi thought, whose intent usually surpassed the coarseness of the material world and went directly to the heart of the matter. As examples, here are four short "Sufi" stories from Shah's book, The Way of the Sufi:
I. The Heart
Someone went up to a madman who was weeping in the bitterest possible way.
He said: "Why do you cry?"
The madman answered: "I am crying to attract the pity of His heart."
The other told him: "Your words are nonsense, for He has no physical heart."
The madman answered: "It is you who are wrong, for He is the owner of all the hearts which exist. Through the heart you can make your connection with God."
II. Light
The true lover finds the light only if, like the candle, he is his own fuel, consuming himself.
III. On Your Religion
Throughout the dervish literature you will find us saying repeatedly that we are not concerned with your religion or even with the lack of it. How can this be reconciled with the fact that believers consider themselves the elect?
IV. The Door
Salih of Qazwin taught his disciples: "Whoever knocks at the door continually, it will be opened to him."
Rabia, hearing him one day, said: "How long will you say, "It will be opened."? The door has never been shut."
Sufism is simple. It is the way of the Heart. For this reason it has always existed, and will always exist as long as love and compassion are possibilities of human expression.